Prediction of the lithium storage capacity of hollow carbon nano-spheres based on their size and morphology

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics Vol. 33; no. 16; pp. 12760 - 12770
• Main Authors: Shaker, Majid, Yaghmaee, Maziar Sahba, Shahalizade, Taieb, Ghazvini, Ali Asghar Sadeghi, Riahifar, Reza, Raissi, Babak, Ge, Qi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-06-2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Carbon; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Lithium; Lithium-ion batteries; Materials Science; Optical and Electronic Materials; Rechargeable batteries; Scientific papers; Spheres; Storage capacity
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-022-08222-9

To date, there is an enormous experimental research focus on discovering the usage of carbon materials as Lithium-ion battery (LIB) anode active materials, though there is a limited number of scientific articles exploring the links between the properties of these materials and their lithium storage performance. The goal of this study is to find the relationship between the size and shape of carbon hollow spheres and their lithium storage capacity via modeling. This research considers the lithium storage of hollow carbon spheres originated from two distinct bulk- and surface-dependent mechanisms. Based on this assumption, a unique model is developed that uses a factor termed “normalized volume” to appropriately consider and estimate the contribution of the surface and bulk phenomena to the lithium storage capacity of a carbon hollow sphere. The model exhibited that shrinking the shell thickness of carbon hollow spheres to less than 20 nm significantly increases their lithium storage capacity. The agreement of the predicted and experimentally reported lithium storage capacities was evaluated by comparing the calculated values to experimental data from the literature. This model has the potential to be used as a foundational method or guideline to forecast the lithium storage capacity of different nano-scaled carbon materials regarding their inner structure, size, and shape.